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The AKC Canine Health Foundation (CHF) and our corporate alliance, Zoetis, are pleased to bring you another installment in a podcast series devoted to canine reproduction education for pet owners, breeders, and veterinarians. In this podcast we discuss canine semen evaluation, with reproductive specialist Dr. Cheryl Lopate of Reproductive Revolutions and Wil […]

Welcome to another podcast brought to you by the AKC Canine Health Foundation. In this podcast we are speaking with Dr. Matt Kaeberlein, Associate Professor of Pathology at the University of Washington. Dr. Kaeberlein discusses his groundbreaking work in aging and his interest in using pet dogs to evaluate a novel anti-aging compound. Dr. Kaeberlein complet […]

The AKC Canine Health Foundation (CHF) and our corporate alliance, Zoetis, are pleased to bring you another installment in a podcast series devoted to canine reproduction education for pet owners, breeders, and veterinarians. In this podcast we discuss canine nutrition during and after pregnancy. This podcast features expert nutritionist, Dr. Emmanuel Font […]

The AKC Canine Health Foundation (CHF) and our corporate alliance, Zoetis, are pleased to bring you another installment in a podcast series devoted to canine reproduction education for pet owners, breeders, and veterinarians. In this podcast we discuss fresh chilled semen breeding, focusing on the brood bitch. This podcast features Dr. Scarlette Gotwals, o […]

The AKC Canine Health Foundation (CHF) and our corporate alliance, Zoetis, are pleased to bring you another installment in a podcast series devoted to canine reproduction education for pet owners, breeders, and veterinarians. In this podcast we discuss fresh chilled semen breeding, focusing on the stud dog. This podcast features Dr. Scarlette Gotwals, of C […]

AMCH Kindred Playin’ With Words
Kelly, 2/2/03 to 3/10/16

AMCH San Jo Playin’ For Keeps caring for her puppies. Little dolly in the front being cleaned up is AMCH Kindred Playin’ By Heart, Ami. The inspiration for AmiDoll.

Canine behavioral researcher Julie Hecht, recently wrote about the ways dogs and people play and how dogs might see it for Scientific American, “It’s Not You It’s Me: If a Dog Won’t Play With You, It Could Be Your Fault.”

According to the research she cited, there are things people typically do to engage a dog to play. Some are effective and others never are—that is they never worked when used in the studies. Ms. Hecht did a little research on her own with shelter dogs.

What the studies show is that most of the things we do to engage dogs to play are ineffective, Hecht wrote, “Of the 35 most common play signals, Rooney and colleagues found that a signal’s popularity “was not related to its success at initiating or sustaining play.”

Things like patting the floor were most often used but play followed only 38% of the time. Scruffing the dog and clapping didn’t work well either—especially with strange dogs. And none of the dogs responded to picking it up and kissing it (a weird thing to do even to your own pet who knows you) or stamping your feet. These “play” behaviors never resulted in play behaviors by the dogs in the studies.

In pretty much the best giant eugenics experiment ever, we created dogs to do our bidding and refined, perfected, or destroyed (depending on your perspective) domestic dogs into very specific types and breeds with defined characteristics. If there is one thing breeds can tell us, genes count too, kids.

When we’re born, there are certain things about us that are relatively set in our genetic codes; We’ll typically have hair, we may need glasses, teeth should arrive at some point with a heart and lungs etc. When a dog is born it is a dog. Theoretically with ears, eyes, four legs and a tail. For some people, it all stops there. A dog is a dog and there are no difference beyond that point. For people who acknowledge the existence of nature (So, everyone who haz a smrt) it’s a lot more complicated than that.

Earlier this week a story in Time magazine online reported on a new recruiting effort focused on pet dogs with naturally occurring cancer that offers researchers an opportunity to learn more about cancer in people.

From Time story–

“…If slobbery kisses and adoring tail wags weren’t enough to secure dogs’ reputation as man’s best friend, a new initiative from some creative cancer researchers may do just that. By recruiting pet dogs with naturally occurring cancers into clinical trials, oncologists may be able to develop treatments that could eventually be used effectively in humans as well…”

A paper published this week in the Public Library of Science’s open-access journal PLoS Medicine by researchers at the National Cancer Institute explain how recruiting dogs for cancer research trials offers researchers ways to consider the many similarities in the progression of cancers in humans and canines—similarities that often cannot be recreated in mice in the lab.

Reported in the Time story, the researchers wrote, “Similar environmental, nutrition, age, sex, and reproductive factors lead to tumor development and progression in human and canine cancers. They share similar features such as histologic appearance, tumor genetics, biological behavior, molecular targets, therapeutic response, and unfortunately, acquired resistance, recurrence, and metastasis.”

The National Cancer Institute’s Comparative Oncology Trials Consortium leads the effort and involves 18 different veterinary institutions across the U.S. The Canine Comparative Oncology & Genomics Consortium is responsible for a tissue bank of canine tumors.

Because dogs share the same environment as people and are genetically similar in some respects to people, with their shorter life expectancy they can be bellwethers for various human diseases.

Days of rain have hung up in the top few inches of soil and created a good environment for growing mushrooms. Unfortunately, the fungi tend to be poisonous to dogs and children. Some deadly.

Mushrooms have grown around some of the old maple and oak trees on my place before but in the past couple of weeks they seem to be everywhere and of many different varieties. From tiny orange dots scattered among tiny mosses, to half pound white globes growing at the base of the long dead cottonwood tree.

Some look like clam shells partially open and are almost as big as dinner plates. Others have cherry red dusted tops or are orange slimy orbs.

According to experts, most mushrooms are toxic and can affect liver, heart, kidneys and neurological systems. If you see them, you best assume they are poisonous and the prevent your dog from ingesting them.

Because there are so many types of mushrooms this year, I’ve been removing them by hand wearing gloves and going around the property a couple times a day. I put them into a plastic bag, tie it closed and place it in the garbage can. That is the safest way to dispose of them and limit spreading. After I am done picking the day’s crop, I leave my garden gloves in the garage where the dogs cannot sniff them. Then I go into the house and wash my hands and arms with warm, soapy water. Be careful not to carry bits of mushrooms into the house or dog areas on your shoes.

It usually takes a couple of walks around the yard to be sure I have most of the fungi. Because the tree leaves are beginning to fall, and changing light during the day it is easy to mistake a mushroom cap for a leaf.

Among the most deadly is the Amanita phalloides or Death Cap mushroom. For more information on types of mushrooms visit http://americanmushrooms.com.

If you suspect your dog has ingested a mushroom, call your vet immediately for directions to make him/her vomit. Try and collect bits of the mushroom or take a photo for identification and give it to your vet. They will be able to help your pet recover and limit organ damage or even safe the dog’s life.

Be extra careful to remove those “schrooms” because where a dog can reach them, so could a toddler or small, curious child.